KARACHI, June 19: A national poison and drug information centre with a toll-free telephone number (0800-77767) set up at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was inaugurated on Tuesday.

At the launch of the NPDIC, the organisers of the centre told the audience, including senior faculty members, pharmacists, nurses and postgraduate medical students of the JPMC, that the first-of-its-kind information service centre in the country was established with the support of the defunct federal health ministry and the World Health Organisation.

The head of the medical department ward-5 of the JPMC, where the centre will be functioning, Prof Jamal Ara, also the head of the National Poison Control Centre (NPCC), said she had had the opportunity to listen to many men and women taking poisons intentionally or accidentally.

“This initiative is a sort of first-aid for the hundreds of poison victims and their physicians and relatives seeking guidance for patient management through our hotline in any part of the country,” she said and added that the new centre would handle poison inquiries, providing information through its online database and telephone inquiry service.

Globally poison information services were handled by pharmacists but in Pakistan due to the limitations in the basic training of clinical pharmacists and nurses in poisoning, the NPDIC would be run by doctors, nurses and pharmacists, she said.

Talking about the basic first-aid measures which may prove successful in case of poison ingestion, the poison centre head said attendants should wash the mouth of the victims thoroughly with water; should not induce vomiting unless told to do so by the NPDIC; should not give salt water, raw eggs, mustard, vinegar etc; should not attempt neutralisation as in cases of corrosives and should withhold food and drinks.

Highlighting the importance of the new establishment and efforts made in this regard, Prof Ara urged the JPMC administration to extend necessary support to the centre. There should be permanent arrangements to pay utility bills and meet other expenses, including staff salaries, to run the centre smoothly, she added.

Acting executive director of the JPMC, Prof Ghulam Mehboob, who was the chief guest at the ceremony, appreciated the services of the NPCC in the management of poisoning cases.

Chief pharmacist of the JPMC Riaz Bhatti, Dr Rukhsana A. Sattar and Dr Rasheed Durrani also spoke.

Later talking to newsmen, Prof Ara said the NPCC with 10 ICU beds and 16 step-down beds had been providing toxicological emergency cover for all types of poisoning, including snakebites. Patients from all over the country were referred to the department as no other public sector hospital in the province had a poison-control unit, she added.